Speakers' Profiles and Synopses

Emeritus Prof Bruce Elliott, PhD, FACHPER, FISBS, FAAKPE

School of Human Sciences The University of Western Australia Perth, Australia

Emeritus Professor Elliott is the Senior Honorary Research Fellow in Biomechanics within the School of Human Sciences at The University of Western Australia. He has a keen interest in performance optimisation and injury reduction in sport having published over 240 refereed articles, along with 70 books or book chapters on these topics. He was honoured by the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports by being asked to give their Geoffrey Dyson and David Waddell Memorial Lectures. He was the inaugural chair of the Western Australian Institute of Sport (1984-1994), served as the Scientific Chair for the 5th IOC World Congress on Sport Sciences and supervised the research projects at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The Australian Government awarded him their Centenary Medal for “service to sport policy and research development for sport.” Professor Elliott is also a high level tennis coach. The Professional Tennis Registry gave him the Stanley Plagenhoef Sport Science Award for “His Lifetime Contribution to Tennis” and the ITF in 2015 gave him their Service to the Game – Coaching Award.

Biomechanics: An Integral Part of Athletic Endeavour from Fundamental Movement Skills to Olympic Performance

Synopsis

Biomechanics is integral to movement development in coaching/teaching, from the growth of fundamental skills to professional performance. For example, the role that shoulder internal rotation plays in throwing development is critical for success. If a young athlete leads with the elbow (poor biomechanics) it will “hinder” shoulder internal rotation and thus throwing development. In another example, Biomechanics tells us that Joseph Schooling would gain an extra 25 cm for every 1 second by gliding 0.4 metres deep compared with the surface – quite an advantage. Biomechanics certainly plays a role in many aspects of sports such as technique optimisation, injury prevention and improvement of movement efficacy. This presentation is aimed at increasing the audience’s appreciation of the role that biomechanics plays in athlete development across various sports and skill levels.

Prof Aaron Coutts, PhD

Faculty of Health University of Technological Sydney Sydney, Australia

Prof Aaron Coutts teaches in the areas of applied exercise physiology, exercise prescription and research design and statistics. His research is focused around developing evidence-based methods for improving the performance and health of athletes. Aaron also provides sport science advice to several top-level professional football clubs (Carlton Football Club, National Rugby League, and Australian Rugby Union) and sporting organisations (e.g., New South Wales Institute of Sport, NSWIS). He is a Director of Exercise and Sport Science Australia (ESSA) and a member of the Nike Sport Research Laboratory Advisory Board. Aaron has published more than 150 scientific articles and is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance and Journal of Science and Medicine in Football and an editorial board member for the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport and Frontiers in Physiology. He is also an accredited sport scientist with the ESSA.

Most high level sports now invest significant time and resource into athlete monitoring. These monitoring systems are often devised to assist coaches and scientists, in determining how individuals are coping with, or recovering from training, and also to guide future training and recovery activities. In addition to assessing player readiness, these systems can also be used to identify individuals who may be at risk of injury and / or illness. The theoretical foundation from which these systems can be based upon has been described as the fitness/fatigue model (Banister et al., 1975), which describes the short and long-term influences of training load on fitness and fatigue responses and estimates these effects on performance. In this presentation, the components of a working athlete monitoring system (i.e., training load, fitness and fatigue measures) will be described. Specific examples of how this approach has been used to monitor and inform training, assess how athletes are coping training and assist in the planning and control of training dose, as well as practical recommendations for monitoring athletes in the field, will also be provided.

Manipulating the Environment to Optimise Physiological and Performance Outcomes for Athletes

Synopsis

It is common for athletes to use training camps in extreme environments in preparation for competition. Advantages of training in either hot or hypoxic environment is that athletes do not necessarily need to increase their external training loads to gain additional physiologic and performance benefits, which may reduce the risks of overload injury and non-functional overreaching. Whilst the acute exposure to both heat and hypoxia amplify the internal training loads experienced by athletes, they each provide different physiological stimuli and elicits different adaptations when applied over longer periods. For example, acclimation to training in hot environments have been shown to increase sweating, skin blood flow responses, plasma volume expansion, and improved cardiovascular stability and fluid-electrolyte balance. In contrast, longer term exposure (i.e., living and training) to hypoxic environments have demonstrated increases red blood cell volume or haemoglobin mass and buffering capacity. Each of these adaptations may help athletes improve their exercise performance in temperate environments as well as the environment they are exposed to during the training camp. It has recently been suggested that acclimation to one environmental stressor (i.e., heat) could also enhance adaptation to other different environmental stressors (e.g., hypoxia). Due to these possible additive cross-tolerance effects of combining training / living in heat and hypoxia, there has been recent interest in exploring the performance and physiological benefits of living high (hypoxia) and training low and high (hypoxia) in the heat in a training camp setting as a novel approach for preparing athletes for competition (Buchheit et al., 2013). This presentation will provide an overview of this recent research and make recommendations for applying this training camp model for both team sport and endurance athletes.

Dr Raymond So’s major responsibility at the HKSI is to drive innovation and scientific, medical and technological support to coaches, in HKSI’s endeavour to systematically and positively impact athletes’ high performance results. Dr So’s research work has been published in international academic and professional journals. He has served the Hong Kong Association of Sports Medicine and Sports Science for 20 years where he was also the Association’s President from 2001 to 2005. He is a corresponding member of the Education Commission of the International Federation of Sports Medicine, an executive member of the Asian Federation of Sports Medicine, a member of the Sports Science Committee of the International Paralympic Committee, and the Secretary of the Preparatory Executive Committee of the Association of Sports Institutes in Asia. He is also a member of the Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness Editorial Board.

Does Nutrition Provision Play a Central Role in a Biopsychosocial Model Approach to Elite Performance?

Synopsis

In the quest to be a World Class athlete, the disciple of nutrition has taken a rather “back seat” approach as compared to other sport science disciplines. Nonetheless, the interest in nutrition for elite performance has skyrocketed in the last ten years. Indeed, how an athlete fuels their engine to perform, recover and stay healthy is paramount to a successful sporting performance; and this thus poses the question: is optimal nutrition the key to elite performance? This session will highlight evidence to suggest that the sport nutritionists and the service support they provide play the central role in a biopsychosocial approach to elite performance.

Mr Yasuyuki Kubo is the current Deputy Director for the Department of Sport Science at the Japan Institute of Sport Sciences (JISS). He is also currently holding an appointment as a sports scientific support programme manager. As a team lead, he is responsible for providing all sport science related services to swimming, synchronised swimming, artistic gymnastic and weight lifting. Before his current appointment, Mr Kubo was an active researcher in sport biomechanics at JISS. His research focuses on how technical training changes human motion from the viewpoint of mechanical energy flows.

Using Biomechanics to Prepare Team Japan for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic

Synopsis

One of the primary aims of research in sport biomechanics is to help explain and quantify the relationship between various segmental motion, joint kinetics and muscular functions of the body and limbs movements in a successful execution of a particular skill. These information are useful in designing the “perfect” or modelled skill-execution, which will allow elite-level coaches and athletes better understand the overall performance of a skill. This presentation will provide some examples of the biomechanics support that JISS provides to Japanese national athletes and coaches from track & field, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, ski-jump, skiing, speed skating and several other sports. This presentation will also provide insights on how research findings in sport biomechanics are communicated effectively to coaches and athletes, and assimilated into training programs for performance enhancement purposes.

Dr Marcus Lee, PhD

Team Lead, Senior Sport Biomechanist Singapore Sport Institute

Dr Marcus Lee heads the Sport Biomechanics team in the Singapore Sport Institute and is a Director on the Board of the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports. He manages the Biomechanics support provided to Team Singapore coaches and athletes across a range of sports. He is interested in how vision and movement contribute to skilled action and injury prevention. His research on ACL injury prevention clinched the Best New Investigator Award at the Australian Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport. He is passionate about teaching and research, growing Sport and Sport Science in Asia, and most importantly, helping Singaporeans to Live Better Through Sport.

The performance of skilled action in sport requires an individual to have the appropriate musculoskeletal structure to perform movements associated with that skill, have the strength to perform those movements, and finally, be able to prospectively perceive what the environment affords in terms of opportunities for action and exercise appropriate motor control. This presentation will share how systematically assessing Structure, Strength, and Skill, accompanied with the appropriate interventions, could lead to enhancement in performances and a decreased risk of injuries. Case studies in Kayaking, Water Polo, Ten-pin bowling and other sports will be shared.

Dr Adrian Kee, PhD

Assistant Dean, Higher Degrees by Research National Institute of EducationNanyang Technological University

Dr Adrian Kee is an academic staff at the Nanyang Technological University. He is currently the Assistant Dean, Higher Degrees by Research at NIE. He teaches sport psychology, motor control and learning, and research methods as a faculty member in the PESS Academic Group. He also serves as a Co-Editor for the International Journal of Sport Psychology. His main research interest is on the applicability of mindfulness in human movements. Secondary research areas involve issues related to human peak functioning, such as motivation, gratitude, burnout, time perspective and flow in human movements. As an alumnus of the Sante Fe Complex Systems Summer School, he endeavors to integrate the complex system approach into his research. He tweets @keefellow.

Non-Linear Pedagogy: Guiding the Discovery of Skilled Action using an Ecological Approach

Synopsis

Non-Linear Pedagogy provides a suitable pedagogical approach to encourage self-discovery of skilled actions that is learner-centred and exploratory in nature. The approach is fundamentally underpinned by ideas from complex systems and ecological psychology. I propose that effective use of this approach may be facilitated if coaches and PE teachers better appreciate the relevance of complex systems and ecological psychology. Key pedagogical principles related to non-linear pedagogy (e.g. representativeness, manipulation of constraints, awareness of focus of attention instructions, task simplification and the functional role of noise) will also be discussed.

Dr Richard Swinbourne is a New Zealand trained Dietitian through the University of Otago, and completed his Sport Dietitian course with Sport Dietitians Australia. Ricco worked for the New Zealand Rugby Union as their National High Performance Nutritionist between 2007-2014, fuelling players wearing the Black Jersey. Six years ago, Ricco stepped sideways to explore physiology and the world of sleep among elite athletes, and completed his doctorate with the Auckland University of Technology. Ricco’s work was published in the European Journal of Sports Science in December 2015, titled “Prevalence of poor sleep quality, sleepiness and obstructive sleep apnoea in athletes’. Ricco is currently the Team Lead of Sport Nutrition at the Singapore Sport Institute, and is enjoying applying both his nutrition and sleep knowledge to our elite swimming environment here in Singapore.

Harnessing the Potential of the Midnight Feast: How Nocturnal Nutrition Can Amplify Gains in the Elite Athlete

Synopsis

The importance of the night time window for neural and muscular regeneration is well recognised. However, the optimisation of nocturnal recovery for the elite athlete is a highly discussed and continually developing area of interest to sport scientists and coaches alike. This keynote address will explore the potential for a variety of nutrients, when consumed nocturnally, to promote anabolism and support beneficial adaptations in lean muscle tissue. Specifically, protein type, timing and dose will be discussed. Furthermore, this presentation will include an update on particular nutrient: sleep interactions within the context of improving sleep quality in athletes. The interesting opportunity that exists for elite athletes to fully harness the night time window for growth, recovery and repair will be explored via an integration of the latest literature with practical every day (night) nutrition protocols and case studies.

Dr Jamie Lye, PhD

Lecturer School of Chemical & Life Sciences Singapore Polytechnic

Dr Jamie Lye is an accredited dietitian of Singapore, having obtained her Honours degree in Nutrition and Dietetics in Flinders University, Australia. She has worked as a clinical dietitian in a local hospital, conducted research related to nutrition, physical activity and exercise and has recently completed her doctoral studies in the area of functional food and exercise. Jamie currently serves as a committee member of the Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics Association and is a full-time Lecturer with Singapore Polytechnic (Diploma in Nutrition, Health and Wellness).

This session follows on the keynote presentation, and continues to explore the potential of functional foods to promote optimal gains for the elite athlete. Functional food refers to foods or a component of food that provides benefits beyond survival. The session will present an update of evidence that highlights the enhanced benefits when foods/nutrients are combined with exercise, and how this may be translated to practice in elite sports.

Dr Abdul Rashid Aziz, PhD

Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach Singapore Sport Institute

Dr Abdul Rashid Aziz has been involved in Singapore’s sporting scene for over 20 years as a sport physiologist and as a strength and conditioning coach. His work in the area of exercise science and sport performance training and testing has been published in international sport medicine and sport science journals. He is a pioneer in researching emerging Asian-dominated sports such as sepak-takraw and pencak-silat. His research interest lies in the practical applications of research findings to improving the athletes' sporting performances. Rashid obtained his PhD at Nanyang Technological University where he examined the physiological effects of Ramadan fasting on sporting performances and training in Muslim athletes, and designing ways to attenuate or circumvent the adverse impact of Ramadan fasting on Muslim athletes’ performance. Please see link for his list of publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Abdul_Rashid_Aziz.

Deliberate Fasting – A Strategy to Further Enhance Training-Induced Adaptations

Synopsis

To ensure optimal endurance performance, it is important for our exercising muscles to be carbohydrate-laden during prolonged exercises. However, recent research suggested that it may be more beneficial for athletes to engage in endurance exercise in a fasted state (i.e., exercise with low carbohydrate stores); especially if the long-term primary objective of the session is to optimise adaptations from the exercise session. It is reasoned that exercising in fasted or a low-carbohydrate state will act as an additional stimulus which may induce a heightened signalling and metabolic stimuli. Hence when such exercise sessions are performed repeatedly over time, this may potentially led to a greater training-induced adaptations. This presentation will discuss the recent published data supporting the beneficial effects of exercise training in the fasted state, with various practical strategies to implement within the athlete’s training programme.

Ms Tracey Veivers

Team Lead, Senior Sport Psychologist Singapore Sport Institute

Ms Tracey Veivers has has over 25 years of experience in high performance sport in designing and implementing programmes encompassing unique and holistic approaches of performance enhancement, mental recovery and wellbeing management. She possesses extensive Major Games experience which began with supporting the Australian contingent at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. She also owned and operated one of the most successful private practices in Australia holding contracts to provide sport psychology services to professional sports and performing artists in the Australian Football League, Australian Rugby Union, Football Federation of Australia, V8 Supercars motor racing, Queensland Ballet, as well as national high performance programmes within the Queensland Academy of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport. Tracey also held the position of Chair of the Australian Psychological Society College of Sport and Exercise Psychologists for over a decade.

As Sport Scientists, we have known for years the importance of managing an elite athlete’s readiness through optimising training, recovery and physical freshness for peak performance.Is such emphasis on these physical aspects overshadowing the need to consider an athlete’s psychological wellbeing and mental health as potential factors in readiness and performance? The complex environment in which sport now operates requires athletes to face multiple pressures throughout their careers particularly coinciding with times of key transition. While the importance of elite athletes’ wellbeing and mental health is gaining increasing attention globally, the development of a more comprehensive understanding of the status in Singapore, as well as the scope for education and models of psychological first aid to capitalise on early detection and intervention principles will be discussed.

Mr Stevenson Lai

Senior Sport Psychologist Singapore Sport Institute

Mr Stevenson Lai has been involved in Singapore’s sporting scene for almost 20 years and has held numerous portfolios in the organisation. He had served as the Head of Sport Psychology, Head of Coaching & Technical Development, Head of Technical Official Development and Head of Sports Leadership Development. In 2012-2014, he was seconded to the Central Youth Guidance Office, an inter-ministry agency formed by MHA, MOE and MSF, to coordinate and strengthen strategic upstream inter-agency efforts and a Whole-of-Government approach on youth-at-risk and youth offending. During his secondment, Stevenson also developed and implemented the Sports & Arts Framework (SPAR) that combines social work intervention with the various sports types and arts forms to engage at-risk youths. Recently, he was invited by the Singapore Psychological Society to represent the sport fraternity to sit on an inter-agency taskforce (consisting of MINDEF, MSF, MOE, SPF, SPS, IMH, FJC and private practitioners), to develop a National Competency Framework for psychologists in Singapore.

Evolutionary Roles and the Embedding of Sport Psychology in High Performance Sport

Synopsis

In the high-performance setting, the key role of a sport psychologist involves mainly enhancing the sport performance and managing the well-being of athletes. However, such role has evolved in the high-performance setting to deliberately and systematically enhance the overall quality and effectiveness of sport psychology services. This evolution adopts a systemic approach which includes the 3 levels of work with i) Sports Association, ii) Coaches, and iii) Athletes using the A.C.T model (Alignment , Communication and Trust). The presentation seeks to provide insights on how the A.C.T model can be applied to both the sport psychologists and the systems they are working with.

Ms Eesha Shah

Associate Sport Psychologist Singapore Sport Institute

Ms Eesha Shah has worked with numerous teams across a variety of sports over the last four years. Most notably, she supported Team Singapore at, both, the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016. She believes that the prowess of a psychologist lies in her ability to adapt as an interface, constantly calibrating to maintain connection between the athlete, the needs and the intervention plan, while remaining authentic to her core values. Hence, as a scientist-practitioner, her research interests are just as varied as the sports she works with, ranging from the use of Social Network Analysis to drive interventions in team sports to the use of neurocognitive tools to enhance focused attention in shooters.

Team Singapore Boccia and Our Paralympic Journey: A Three-Pronged Approach to Psychological Preparedness

Synopsis

At the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, Team Singapore was represented by 2 qualified athletes in the Boccia BC3 Individual and Pair events. Together with their team of 2 competition partners and 4 supporting officials, they attained a top 4 finish in the Pair event. All firsts. The journey that culminated in this success was guided by a three-pronged approach to psychological preparedness. As the psychologist supporting Boccia, Eesha designed plans in line with this approach and became the interface that calibrated between the athletes, their needs and aspirations, to action those plans together as a team. In this presentation, Eesha will present the work with the Boccia team using the three-pronged approach of performance enhancement, mental recovery and wellbeing management.

Assoc Prof Jason Lee obtained his doctorate in Exercise Physiology under the sponsorship from the UK Overseas Research Scholarship and Faculty Studentship. Capitalising his experience as a Commando Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces, Jason applies his military knowledge to his current work by functioning as the Head of Human Performance Laboratory at the Defence Medical and Environmental Research Institute, DSO National Laboratories. Jason’s main research interests are in fluid balance, thermoregulation and mitigation strategies for improving human performance in the heat. He studies the physiological demands associated with extreme exposures and how humans adapt to ensure survival and optimal performance. He also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor in Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore.

Effects of Ambient Temperature on Short-Term Endurance Training: Implications for Physiology and Performance

Synopsis

Adaptations depend on a variety of factors, with intensity, duration and frequency of training sessions playing vital roles. Training intensity and/or duration under warm-humid conditions may be limited and thus potentially compromising the optimal physiological adaptations. On the other hand, training specificity is of paramount importance, i.e., the advantages of training in actual competing conditions. In this presentation, data will be presented to depict the physiological adaptations and endurance performance following short term training in cool vs. warm conditions.

Mr Carl Bradford, PhD candidate

Associate Sport Physiologist Singapore Sport Institute

Mr Carl Bradford is from New Zealand and has been at the Singapore Sport Institute for 3 years, largely involved with the Singapore Swimming programmes. His background is in strength and conditioning and exercise physiology with a primary interest in thermoregulation. His Honours, Masters and Doctoral research from the University of Otago have examined cooling strategies, the role of fever in exercise, and acute and adaptive responses to endurance swimming in warm water, respectively. He previously worked as a sport scientist and research laboratory technician in New Zealand universities and as a fitness trainer for regional football and rugby squads.

Open Water Swimming in Warm Water: Acute Responses and a Heat Conditioning Intervention

Synopsis

Endurance open water swimming in warm water conditions (> 30 °C) presents a very unique thermoregulatory challenge to athletes, but little is known about the physiological responses in this environment. Heat conditioning is shown to improve physiological responses to the heat in terrestrial athletes, but its effectiveness in aquatic athletes remains unknown. In this presentation, data on the acute thermoregulatory responses of endurance open water swimming, both simulated in a laboratory and in actual race environments will be shared and the effect of heat conditioning on these responses will be discussed.

Using Game Analysis for an Edge in Training and Competition

Concurrent Workshop – Using Game Analysis for an Edge in Training and Competition

Synopsis

Sport has moved towards a data-centric era where technological advancement has provided us greater access to information for more informed and evidence-based decisions. This presentation will introduce time-motion and notational analysis. Time-motion analysis provides practitioners a greater insight into the physiological demands of the sport by examining the duration spent completing different movements, the exercise intensities and work-rest ratios during an actual competition scenario. This information is essential in guiding training prescription to yield optimal training adaptations and enhance athletic performance. Similarly, notational analysis identifies key performance indicators by examining the frequency of technical and tactical variables related to successful performance. These information would provide vital feedback for coaches and athletes to improve their tactical decision making and strategy formulation. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to try a notational analysis software through a guided session; and in turn experience the process of characterising competitive match-play.

Mr Joel Pang

Associate Sport Physiologist Singapore Sport Institute

Mr Joel Pang obtained his first class Honours degree in Sports Science and Management (SSM) at the Nanyang Technological University as a Sport Singapore scholar. Having spent more than seven years as a National athlete competing in both regional and international competitions, Joel strives to integrate both his experience and knowledge into his current work as an associate sport physiologist at the Singapore Sport Institute. Joel’s interests include blood flow restriction training and using performance analysis to better understand the physiological demands of various sports, and translating this knowledge to enhance their training strategies. He is currently working closely with Team Singapore athletes from Silat, Fencing and Sailing.

Mr Ranald Joseph

Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach Singapore Sport Institute

Mr Ranald Joseph is working at Singapore Sport Institute as an accredited strength & conditioning coach under the Australian Strength & Conditioning Association. He has been working with our Team Singapore athletes from various sports such as Sailing, Silat, Hockey, Netball, etc. As a former international athlete, Ranald aims to integrate his sporting experience and interests into high performance strength & conditioning.

Dr Luqman Aziz, PhD

Sport Biomechanist Singapore Sport Institute

Dr Luqman Aziz completed his doctorate in biomechanics from The University of Western Australia’s under both the Parkinson’s WA scholarship and the Scholarship for International Research Fees. He has seven years research experience in biomechanics, tutoring (University level), providing strength and conditioning training and holding sport science related seminars. Luqman is currently a sport biomechanist at the Singapore Sport Institute working closely with the national athletes and coaches with the goal of improving the performance and reducing the risk of injuries of the athletes. Aside from injury screening and risk reduction in sports, he has interests in the functional and biomechanical outcomes following training interventions.

Ms Wan Xiu Goh

Associate Sport Biomechanist Singapore Sport Institute

Ms Wan Xiu Goh first joined Singapore Sport Institute in 2013 as an intern, before progressing to her current role as an Associate Sport Biomechanist. She obtained her Honours degree in Sport Science and Management in Nanyang Technological University, having completed her thesis in SSI where she investigated the visual search behaviours of bowlers. As a follow-up, Wan Xiu is presently profiling and investigating the bowling movement in relation to changes in ball weight as part of her Master’s thesis. Capitalising her experience as a table-tennis player, Wan Xiu applies her racket sport knowledge in performing game analysis in her current work with the abled and para table-tennis and badminton teams. She is also interested to find out how performance analysis can elicit game changes due to rule and equipment modifications.

Post-Activation Potentiation Using Variable Resistance Exercises

Postactivation potentiation (PAP) is a phenomenon by which force exerted by a muscle is increased due to its previous contraction history. Most of the studies on PAP have primarily been using resistance exercises of heavy loads (>80% of 1RM) to induce PAP. Recently, the use of elastic bands and chains, also known as variable resistance, on PAP have been studied. The aim of the presentation is to provide audience with information about current findings on the efficacy of variable resistance exercises in inducing PAP. The presentation will also showcase the studies that have been conducted by SSI and NTU staffs and students. Audience will also be given the opportunity to perform exercises using variable resistance equipment.

Mr Danny Lum

Team Lead, Strength & Conditioning Coach Singapore Sport Institute

Mr Danny Lum has a Masters Degree in Sport and Exercise Studies and is a NSCA certified strength and conditioning specialist. He has been working with athletes from multiple sports including athletics, basketball, bowling, canoeing, diving, judo, kayaking, swimming, table tennis, tennis and water-ski. Research studies that he has conducted include topics on recovery methods, strength and conditioning training for endurance athletes, and postactivation potentiation. He is also currently the Team Lead for Strength & Conditioning at the Singapore Sport Institute.

Mr Kelvin Chua

Strength & Conditioning Coach Singapore Sport Institute

Mr Kelvin Chua earned a Master of Science Degree with his research focusing on the effects of massage on muscle properties. He has prior experience working in the field of sports science research. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach (NSCA) and has contributed to the development of fitness and conditioning in youth footballers. At present, Kelvin serves as a Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Singapore Sport Institute.

Translating Sport Nutrition Theory to Practice

Concurrent Workshop – Translating Sport Nutrition Theory to Practice

Synopsis

Vitamin D is a neglected nutrient for sport until recent times. Current research shows that poor vitamin D status may not only affect bone health, but also increase the risks of illnesses and soft tissue injuries. While sunlight exposure is the predominant source of vitamin D for the human body, dietary intake can also improve vitamin D status. Lutein and Zeaxanthin are gaining popularity as current research shows that they can improve visual and motor reaction times. High intakes of these nutrients may be particularly useful for batting sports and racquet sports where fast reaction times are critical. This session will provide participants with practical knowledge on achieving therapeutic doses of these specific nutrients through food intake. Participants will also get to taste food items, so come with an open mind and stomach space!

Ms Liyan Huang

Sport Dietitian Singapore Sport Institute

Ms Liyan Huang is a Sport Dietitian with the Singapore Sport Institute. She works closely with athletes from Badminton, Table Tennis, Gymnastics, Synchronised Swimming and Diving, providing them with team based and individual nutrition guidance. She has strong interest in working with athletes with low energy availability and has set up a screening programme aimed at identifying athletes at risk of developing conditions related to low energy availability. Liyan holds a Bachelor degree in Food Science and Technology and a Masters Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. She also has a post-graduate diploma in Sports Nutrition with the International Olympic Committee.

Ms Cheryl Teo

Associate Sport Dietitian Singapore Sport Institute

As a Sport Dietitian with the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI), Ms Cheryl Teo is heavily involved with national athletes from a wide spectrum sports, such as athletics, kayaking, silat and wushu, providing nutrition workshops and consultation services. As part of her daily work dealings, Cheryl works closely with colleagues from various sport science disciplines to provide holistic interdisciplinary support to athletes. In addition to her role as a sport dietitian, Cheryl is also involved in various projects at the Sport Nutrition Department, such as supervising student interns, organising and conducting cooking sessions at the Sport Nutrition Lab. She recently completed her Master of Science (Research) at the National Institute of Education, which investigates validating a nutrition knowledge tool in Singapore athletes.

Ms Sin Hwee Ang

Associate Sport Dietitian Singapore Sport Institute

As a Sport Dietitian with the Singapore Sport Institute, Ms Sin Hwee Ang works with Team Singapore athletes from Sailing, Rugby, Basketball and Disability Sports. Depending on the needs of each sport and athlete, Sin Hwee organises and conducts nutrition workshops, cooking classes and individualised consults, targeted at performance issues. She also has experiences travelling as the Team Dietitian with the National Rugby Squad to facilitate optimal competition nutrition practices and has provided nutrition support at various major games including the Rio Paralympics 2016. Sin Hwee is also an adjunct lecturer with Republic Polytechnic delivering the Sports Nutrition modules of the Basic Sports Science Course to aspiring coaches and other sporting individuals. Sin Hwee holds a BSc. (Hons) degree in Nutrition from the University of Sydney.

Ms Parimala Sivaperuman

Associate Sport Dietitian Singapore Sport Institute

Ms Parimala Sivaperuman is an accredited dietitian of Singapore, and obtained her Master’s degree in Dietetics from Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom. Parim is currently a Sport Dietitian at the Singapore Sport Institute and has extensive experience working with both youth and elite level athletes. Parim’s role sees her working closely with skilled based and team sports, such as fencing, shooting, archery, cue sports, hockey and cricket, advising on their nutritional needs. Parim’s present portfolio also includes the provision of nutrition programmes for community projects conducted by ActiveSG and SportsCares and supervising final year project students. Parim has conducted research on elite athletes’ dietary practices and examining the effect of lutein and zeaxanthin on visual motor reaction times in baseball and cricket players. Parim is also a member of the Sports Nutrition Interest Group from the British Dietetic Association and the Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics Association.

Best practice: Evidence-Based Sport Psychology

Concurrent Workshop – Best practice: Evidence-Based Sport Psychology

Mr Nathanael Ong

Associate Sport Psychologist Singapore Sport Institute

Mr Nathanael Ong graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) majoring in Psychology, and from Loughborough University with a Masters in Science (with Distinction) in Sport and Exercise Psychology. Nathanael was previously awarded the prestigious Singapore Sports Council Scholarship, and has been working as an Associate Sport Psychologist with the Singapore Sport Institute since 2014. In his work, he has worked with numerous national teams, such as: Cycling, Athletics, Taekwondo, Wushu, Rugby, Judo, Cuesports, and Rowing. He has worked with Singaporean national athletes in preparation for Major Games, such as the Southeast Asian Games in 2015 and 2017.

The Use of the Vienna Test System in Sport Psychology: Research and Possible Applications

Synopsis

The Vienna Test System (VTS) is a computerised psychological assessment tool that can assess athletes on a wide range of psychological and cognitive constructs. The session will seek to provide the audience with information about how the VTS has been used in both research and applied settings. We will first review existing literature of how the VTS has been used in past sport psychology research. This includes how it has been used to compare athletes of various categories, and to investigate the effect of certain factors on athlete performance. This will be followed by our SSI research study, where we sought to test the Singaporean national athlete population using the VTS. In this study, we sought to obtain our own Singaporean athlete norms, as well as compare between athletes according to different demographics. The results of this study will be discussed, and possible applications will be shared with the audience. Finally, we will cover various potential ideas of how the VTS can be used in future sport psychology research and practice.

Dr Emily Ortega

Lecturer Psychology Programme Singapore University of Social Sciences

Dr Emily Ortega is a Sport Psychologist whose interests lie in the psychophysiology in sports performance. A graduate of the National University of Singapore’s psychology degree programme, she pursued her Masters in Sport Psychology at The University of Western Australia before practising as an applied Sport Psychologist. Emily has worked with Singapore’s finest athletes helping them to fine-tune their mental game to achieve their sporting dreams from national schools to the Olympic Games. A professional member of the Singapore Psychological Society, she is also a committee member of the Asia South Pacific Association of Sport Psychology. Currently, Emily is a lecturer of the Psychology Programme at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

HRV Monitoring of Elite Shooters in Training and Competition

Synopsis

Shooting is a sport that requires focused attention and emotional control for performance, and therefore, awareness and management of psychophysiological states are critical for optimal performance. In the pre-performance stage, heart rate variability (HRV) has been found to positively correlate with shooting score and it is also a significant predictor of shooting score. HRV of shooters were monitored regularly in training and during competitions in 2017. In this presentation, the effectiveness and implications of HRV monitoring from a psychological perspective will be shared.

Maximal aerobic power or VO2max is the ‘gold standard’ of aerobic fitness and is typically used to assess the endurance levels of the athlete. Nonetheless this assessment requires expensive equipment that many coaches do not possess nor have access to. This session aims to demonstrate a simple test, the peak treadmill velocity, which can serve as a surrogate measure of the athlete’s endurance running performance. The session will describe and demonstrate test’s protocol and provide information on the test’s validity, reliability and sensitiveness.

Dr Abdul Rashid Aziz, PhD

Senior Strength & Conditioning CoachSingapore Sport Institute

Dr Abdul Rashid Aziz has been involved in Singapore’s sporting scene for over 20 years as a sport physiologist and as a strength and conditioning coach. His work in the area of exercise science and sport performance training and testing has been published in international sport medicine and sport science journals. He is a pioneer in researching emerging Asian-dominated sports such as sepak-takraw and pencak-silat. His research interest lies in the practical applications of research findings to improving the athletes' sporting performances. Rashid obtained his PhD at Nanyang Technological University where he examined the physiological effects of Ramadan fasting on sporting performances and training in Muslim athletes, and designing ways to attenuate or circumvent the adverse impact of Ramadan fasting on Muslim athletes’ performance. Please see link for his list of publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Abdul_Rashid_Aziz.